A Novel Approach of Retrofitting a Combined Cycle With Post Combustion $CO2$ Capture

Most state-of-the-art natural gas-fired combined cycle (NGCC) plants are triple-pressure reheat cycles with efficiencies close to 60%. However, with carbon capture and storage, the efficiency will be penalized by almost 10% units. To limit the energy consumption for a carbon capture NGCC plant, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is necessary. Utilizing EGR increases the $CO2$ content in the gas turbine exhaust while it reduces the flue gas flow to be treated in the capture plant. Nevertheless, due to EGR, the gas turbine will experience a different media with different properties compared with the design case. This study looks into how the turbomachinery reacts to EGR. The work also discusses the potential of further improvements by utilizing pressurized water rather than extraction steam as the heat source for the $CO2$ stripper. The results show that the required low-pressure level should be elevated to a point close to the intermediate-pressure to achieve optimum efficiency, hence, one pressure level can be omitted. The main tool used for this study is an in-house off-design model based on fully dimensionless groups programmed in the commercially available heat and mass balance program IPSEPRO. The model is based on a GE 109FB machine with a triple-pressure reheat steam cycle.